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Welcome to the website for theNew Mexico Citizens Alliance for Responsible Energy and Sustainability

NMCARES

In mid-2008, residents of the upper Pecos River valley, along the scenic and historic Santa Fe Trail in San Miguel County, New Mexico, became aware of plans to develop an industrial wind power facility on a mesa bordering this area. This website hopes to present some of the information we have accumulated in the course of investigating the potential ramifications of this proposal, and to generate a greater public awareness of the need for closer scrutiny of all the aspects involved with industrial energy facilities and their impact upon rural communities.

The mission of the New Mexico Citizens Alliance for Responsible Energy and Sustainability

is to encourage greater public discussion and government oversight of wind
industry development in New Mexico. We are working to:

Protect the health and welfare of residents and communities through
adequate setback distances

Preserve scenic, cultural and historical landscapes to maintain
quality of life

Protect the environment and wildlife from negative impacts of
industrial-scale development

Establish a code of conduct and ethics for procedural transparency and
oversight for all entities involved in the wind development process.

An Open Letter To President Obama (and other legislators)

January 22, 2009
Dear President Obama,
Your laudable plans to move away from fossil fuel energy sources
will create economic opportunity for a host of renewable energy
companies. However, in this new economy, millions of rural residents
and the rural landscape itself will be significantly affected by the
development of large-scale alternative energy systems. Many of these
facilities are being planned in the immediate vicinity of small towns
all over this country, with potentially devastating consequences to the
residents. The construction of these industrial facilities can also
have an irrevocable impact on the rural ecology and landscape. This
impact extends beyond the lives of rural residents to all of our society
and the millions of urban dwellers who enjoy and replenish their lives
by visiting rural America.
We believe that inadequate consideration has been given to the impact of renewable
energy industrial facilities on rural communities and on the rural
ecology and landscape. New utility-scale power generation facilities
are being located based solely on proximity to transmission lines
without regard for any other factors. Rural residents ask that you and
your administration work to gather all relevant information on the
impacts as well as the benefits of these systems. Specifically, we feel
a dialog on the criteria for the siting of these facilities is badly
needed, with adequate evaluation of both social and environmental costs.
This dialog is the only way to ensure that all citizens, both rural and
urban, will have protection of both their quality of life as well as our
precious natural resources.
The Rural Residents of America

Contact President Obama

Please send the message below directly to President Obama. (1)Highlight and copy the text. (2)Click HERE to open the White House contact page. (3)Paste the text into the message area at the bottom of the form. (4)Fill out the rest of the form with your information, choose "I have a policy question" in the subject area, and click Submit (below the form). Thank you.

The move away from fossil-fuel-based energy sources is creating economic opportunity for some. The gold rush for wind power is placing industrial-scale projects in close proximity to rural towns because they are convenient to transmission lines, not because they are where the best wind is. Health and property values suffer. I feel a national dialog on the criteria for project placement is badly needed, with adequate evaluation of social and environmental costs. Would you work to develop this?

Constitution of the State of New Mexico

Sec. 2 (Popular sovereignty): All political power is vested in and derived from the people, is founded upon their will and is instituted solely for their good.
Sec. 4 (Inherent rights) All persons are born equally free, and have certain natural, inherent and inalienable rights, among which are the rights of enjoying and defending life and liberty, of acquiring, possessing and protecting property and of seeking and obtaining safety and happiness.

Fair Use Notice & Disclaimer

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of the environmental, economic, scientific and social issues that relate to wind power development. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. If you are a copyright owner and object to our use of your material, please contact us and it will be removed.

This website is intended to provide only general summary information to the public. The information at this website does not in any way constitute legal, medical, or professional advice and NMCARES cannot be held liable for actions arising from its use. While NMCARES seeks to ensure that all content and information published at this website is verifiable, NMCARES does not certify its accuracy, nor can NMCARES be held responsible for the contents of any externally-linked pages.